Your Humble Scribe

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Requiscat in Pacem

Ernest Gary Gygax27JUL1938 to 04MAR2008.

I am saddened to report that the original Dungeon Master failed his last saving throw this morning.

For those Gentle Readers who may not have heard of this man, E. Gary Gygax was the co-creator of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game -- the pencil-and-paper version -- and was probably the father of the whole Role Playing Game industry, both paper and computer versions.

Chris, Tole and I have spent literal ages wandering through various AD&D campaigns over the years, and I credit Dungeons and Dragons with improving not only my imagination, but also my writing skills.

I imagine they've already got the screens set up and the Mountain Dew and chips stockpiled and waiting for you, Gary.

16 comments:

It's incredible to think of all the people who may have never heard of him, or realize how much of their favorite RPG's owe their genesis to his genius.The world is a little sadder to lose him, but so much better than it would have been if he had never been here.

Some of my favourite memories are of weekend all night games with a group of friends, too much junk food, the Dungeon Master's sugar (and power) crazed eyes rising over his screens, readying the next load of wandering monsters to throw at our weary band. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr Gygax.

When my son's home from college, he and a few friends from high school take over the family room - as they did in high school. My only rules have always been: no blood and no body parts. Oh, and be sure to let the dog out and in as needed.Some of their pen and paper sessions went on for 36 hours.OldeForce

E. Gary Gygax was only the *co*-author of the Dungeons & Dragons game system. When D&D hit the big time, Gygax desperately wanted to buy out Dave Arneson and make it look like only Gygax had come up with the system. And Gygax was definitely an egomaniac.

Gygax also tried to sue the Metro Detroit Gamers around 1980 because the MDG held a games convention in Detroit that Gygax felt was too close (date-wise) to Gygax's GenCon in Milwaukee. Gygax tried to get the MDG's cons canceled because he said that MDG was drawing paying customers away from his cons. Rubbish! Screw Gygax for trying to stifle his "competition."

Needless to say, after that episode, a lot of us in the Detroit area quit playing D&D and also boycotted TSR, which was Gygax's company. In fact, we in the MDG had two custom t-shirts printed then. One shirt had the TSR logo on it with a red circle and slash superimposed over the logo. The other shirt said "E. Coli eats s**t--so does E. Gary Gygax"!